In the fertile highlands of Malaya (now part of Malaysia), a woman named Yun Ling Teoh, seeking solace and driven by a desire to erect a memorial to her sister who was killed by Japanese soldiers during the occupation of her country, encounters the work of Aritomo Nakamura, a highly revered Japanese landscape designer.
Although still harboring the painful memories of war, she accepts an offer to become Aritomo’s apprentice, and within his “garden of evening mists,” Yun Ling finds herself in thrall to the almost mystic power of the garden. Over the course of the narrative, however, Yun Ling is also drawn deeper into her own country’s disturbing history.
The Garden of Evening Mists, by Tan Twan Eng352 pagesCANONGATE BOOKS